are blessed with good skin; like their father and me, they heal very quickly. Freddie gets up, dusts off his knees and carries on in his pursuit of another beleaguered peacock.
“Freddie! Stop annoying them…” He takes no notice. “It’s a shame your brother can’t play some of your special games. He—”
“He can,” Trinny says as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. Having grown weary of the gravel, she sits next to me on the bench, her little legs swinging a foot or more off the ground.
“Really? I didn’t know that. Tell me.” I take her right hand and dust it off with my dress.
“We can talk.”
“I know that. That’s good. Brothers and sisters should always be friends and talk to each other.”
“With no words…”
“Oh. I see! Can you show me?”
She faces Freddie. As if listening he stops dead and turns to face us. He blows me a kiss.
I laugh and shake my head disbelievingly. “Did you tell him to do that?”
She nods emphatically.
I realign the pink bow in her chestnut-coloured hair. “I’m glad you have Freddie. As you get older, you’ll be able to take care of each other.”
“I do. That’s what Daddy said.”
“Did he? When?”
“Before.”
“Before the party?”
She shakes her head. “No. The before time.”
“The before time? I don’t know what you mean, sweetheart.”
She reaches over and points to my stomach. “The before time when we were here.”
I remember Ayden talking to them.
“You mean when Daddy spoke to you?”
She nods.
“What did he say?”
“I was not a nice sister. I had to look after Freddie. I had to share.”
“Share what?
She raises a tiny forefinger in my direction. “You, Mummy.”
I’m truly captivated. “And how did you do that, Trinny?”
“You made us grow. I took more. Freddie didn’t know.” She gathers her summer dress in her hands and pulls it over her knees, unaware of the magnitude of her explanation.
“So you let him have more of Mummy’s goodness?”
She nods once more.
“That was very kind of you. I wrap my arm around her shoulder and pull her into me. “You know what, I think you’re going to grow into a very clever and very kind young lady.”
She clambers onto my knee. “Like you, Mummy?”
“Well, I try to be kind, but there are people in the world who are not kind back.”
She looks up at me, her face the picture of innocence. “I won’t let them hurt us.”
“I believe you, Trinny. But you and Freddie have me and Daddy so you don’t have to worry about anything. Okay?”
She jumps off my knee, reaches for my hand and pretends to pull me up. I make groaning noises as if my bones are aching, making her giggle. We go in search of her brother.
“I wonder if you can explain something to Mummy...”
She slips her tiny hand into mine.
“Do you know what happened in the before time, when it was time to leave and meet me and Daddy? Something not very nice happened. Do you know why?”
Wide-eyed, she nods twice. “Freddie didn’t like the goodness. It hurt him.”
“How did it hurt him?”
She taps her chest with her free hand, and begins to skip.
“Ah. So the medicine the doctor gave Mummy to make her feel better made Freddie sick?”
She begins to hum a tune. “Yes.”
“Is that why you helped him to come out so quickly?”
Her smile is her wordless answer.
“I thought so. That was very brave of you to let your brother leave first.” I run my hand over her hair. “As you get older you’ll find that you can do lots of things. Like you speak French with Mamie…”
“Mamie has a happy face when we speak French,” she says with a cheerful smile.
“She does, and she thinks I’ve taught you.” We share the joke and she giggles. I crouch down to her height. “But, Trinny, sometimes you have to let other people win or come first, just like you did with Freddie. They’re not like you. They need to win at things sometimes. Then they’ll have a happy face too, just like Mamie. Remember that, okay?”
“I’ll remember, Mummy.” She looks up at me with silent recognition, wraps her arms around my neck, presses her cheek against mine and waits to be picked up.
We rise together, her head resting on my shoulder, her fingers creating ringlets in my hair. Before I can even call Freddie, he’s running towards me, his dark curls tumbling around his forehead, his eyes flashing with post party bliss.
“Oh! There you are. We thought you’d turned into a peacock and flown away.”